DOMINANCE AND AFFABILITY IN THE KULCSAR INTERROGATION

In one of the most important, and politically far-reaching, recent embezzlement cases in Hungary, the video recording of an interrogation at the prosecutor's office has become public. This paper analyses the reflection of dominance and control in the recorded conversation, as well as the role structure, tone and style of the interrogation, on the basis of various linguistic phenomena. The regulation of turn taking, initiatives and responses, thematic control, background channel signals and stylistic phenomena are all analysed and it turns out that, in the present case, control was throughout in the hands of the prosecution and that the interrogation was directed strenuously, with clear dominance and strong control. However, the interrogators' dominant role and strict thematic and strategic control was not coupled with a stiff and rigid style: the tone of the interrogation, apart from a number of more formal portions, was often relaxed, and sometimes casual. This shows in general that the style and control structure of a particular speech event are two separate planes that may significantly differ from one another.